User:Mattmaxon

I have hiked the local mountains since I came to California in 1981 from Massachusetts.

I have worked off/on as an environmental volunteer, doing cleanups of all sorts, trail maintenance/construction officially and unofficially over the last 25+ years

My interest in mapping has always been there and was intensified when working with the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) "Trail Gorillas" maintaining the Pacific Crest Trail Southern Region "The First 700 miles"

One serious problem we had was "where the heck is the trail?" Getting volunteers out to specific locations was hap hazard at best, many times with discouraging results hauling heavy equipment or hiking miles out of our way for nothing.

I as part of my loose goal of hiking the PCT started collecting data, based on the PCT DATABOOK and have collected verified data for about 800-900 miles of trail.

After collecting much data on the PCT I found the USGS maps accuracy was very poor in many locations at best with many well known and used trails, road, etc not on the map, with updates in the 10+ year range way out of date by the time they where published.

As the result of a serious accident in November 1992 I became a convert to the psychical and mental health rewards reaped from spending time in nature and resolved to do what I could to encourage people to explore.

I decided to "take up the oar" where others have left off and encourage use of and care of the the wonderful mountains we have out our back doors here in the Los Angeles area.

I have gone through a series of GPS units right now I am using a Garmin GPSmap76 CSX. I have a 76CS, & 76S. I have used the Etex line too but those units where stolen in a vehicle burglary